1.3 Drifting Continents


Vocabulary


Pangaea: means "all lands"- a supercontinent existed 300 million years
Continental Drift: the movement of continents over time
Fossil: trace of an organism that has been preserved in rock

Outline


Summary
  • Africa and South America look like they fit together
    • couldn't prove how continents drifted


Theory of Continental Drift
  • 1910/ Wegener
    • hypothesis is single landmass called Pangaea
    • supported ideas with study of landforms, fossils, and climate
  • Scientists rejected Wegener's theory
    • Wegener got evidence from fossils
    • common fossils is found on distant continents
      • 2 reptiles found in places now seperated
  • Evidence from climate
    • continents today have very different climate from millions of years ago

Scientists Rejected Wegener's Theory
  • used mountains
    • from Africa and South America